Your Fulbright Grant Year

Your Fulbright Grant to Greece is much more than a scholarship: we offer grantees the opportunity to have a transformative cultural and academic experience and provide support before you arrive in Greece and during your time in Greece. Receiving a Fulbright Grant opens many doors and provides professional, educational, and general networking opportunities both on a local and a global level. Fulbright Greece is also involved in a number of exciting activities aimed at advancing the interests of the Foundation and all of our programs through the organization of and/or participation in public lectures, training sessions and workshops, and other outreach events. Fulbright Greece encourages all of our grantees to stay in touch and involved.

Following your selection and the approval of your nomination, the Fulbright American Program Coordinator will contact you via e-mail on the necessary steps to complete before your travel to Greece. Relevant information, instructions and documents on matters pertaining to your travel and stay in Greece in the following academic year will also be communicated. Areas addressed concern your grant documents/grant benefits, health records, process for obtaining a visa for your travel to Greece, accommodation information etc. The American Program Coordinator will also discuss your grant travel dates/arrangements with you and approve the travel cost in advance.

In late September the Fulbright Foundation holds a two day orientation program in Athens. The orientation program is designed to offer you a first insight of current Greece, its society, history and culture and aims to facilitate your transition to life in the country. This “official” welcome to Greece is your first opportunity to meet your fellow grantees and the Fulbright Greece staff. Fulbright and U.S. Embassy staff members and invited speakers from academia and business make presentations through which you will receive useful information on the Fulbright program in Greece, your grant benefits, Fulbright procedures and mandatory reports, residence permits and tax requirements, cultural adjustment and Greek current affairs. A spring reunion of Fulbright grantees (to also include U.S. Scholars who were not in Greece in September) usually takes place in mid-April.

Fulbright Greece staff will offer you its support and assistance for the duration of your Fulbright grant in Greece. The American Program Coordinator will provide assistance with matters such as obtaining residence permits and tax identity numbers, opening bank accounts, facilitating contacts to assist your work/research, etc. The Foundation’s Financial Administrator will assist you throughout the year on matters related to grant benefits and payments.

Your hosts will support your research, lecturing or other assignments. You should keep Fulbright Greece abreast of your collaborations during your grant period.

US Embassy in Athens: Public Diplomacy and American Services sections are available to help out American citizens on a variety of issues and work closely with the Fulbright Foundation in Greece.

The purpose of this Emergency Plan is to ensure adequate preparation for grantees in the event of emergency and crisis situations and to effectively manage them.

The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, Office of Academic and Exchange Programs (ECA/A/E) has overall responsibility for the Fulbright Program worldwide under the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 as amended (Fulbright-Hays).

In a crisis situation, Fulbright Greece consults closely with ECA/A/E Regional Fulbright Branch for Europe/Eurasia, the U.S. Embassy in Athens and the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding any decisions concerning the safety of Fulbright participants in Greece. In consultation with the U.S. Department of State’s Europe/Eurasia Regional Bureau and the U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Section, ECA/A/E will make the final determination in the event of any grantee’s program suspension or reinstatement.

Throughout the academic year Fulbright Greece informs its grantees about cultural enrichment activities and forwards invitations to events/lectures. It is important that you maintain regular contact with the American Program Coordinator to ensure that you keep abreast of events and other information important for your Fulbright year. Informal gatherings (“get together meetings”) are arranged periodically at the Athens office as an opportunity to meet with each other and discuss projects and other areas of interest.

Fulbright Greece is involved in educational outreach programs and activities to promote studies in the U.S. in Greece and the Fulbright Scholarship Programs. Your participation and support will be requested for some activities (such as the U.S. University Fair, International Fair on Education and Art Athina) throughout your grant term and we hope to make this part of your Fulbright grant experience. Through your knowledge and experience of the U.S. educational and University system and your Fulbright grantee status you have a lot to contribute to Greek student audiences.

Submission of a final grant report is mandatory for all Fulbright grantees. In addition to this, U.S. Fulbright Students are also required to submit a mid-term report. The American Program Coordinator sends instructions on report submissions to all U.S. Students mid-way through the academic year (for mid-term reports) and approximately one month prior to grant completion for final reports. U.S. Scholars are provided with instructions on final report submission directly by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES). We pay particular attention to your comments and suggestions and rely on your feedback to improve our services and support to American grantees. All reports are filed in the Foundation’s archive for future reference.

Fulbright Greece encourages all grantees to submit or collect stories, video clips and photographs to document their stay and to share their experience with current and future candidates. The Foundation assumes that any documentation, including quotes, can be used for public dissemination to promote the Fulbright programs and objectives (website, social media¸ Fulbright Film) unless explicitly stated otherwise by the grantee. Please visit the Fulbright website for updates www.fulbright.gr, like our Fulbright Foundation Greece Facebook page, and follow us on Twitter and YouTube. Whether you are a student, a researcher or a teacher and regardless of the duration of your grant term in Greece, we would very much like to hear from you.

The Fulbright Foundation in Greece encourages you to stay in touch with us once your grant term is over and we look forward to seeing you at alumni events in the United States or in Greece. Please make sure to keep us up-to-date as you move on to new assignments, positions, careers and keep your contact information current so we can communicate with you. We will keep you informed of the Foundation’s activities and request your support and participation in activities such as recruiting and screening future researchers. We also look forward to receiving your news for the Foundation’s newsletter – Alumni Highlights on your academic and professional development.

At the completion of your grant, you are invited to join the International Exchange Alumni Network, a prestigious, web-based community for alumni of all U.S. government exchange programs at www.alumni.state.gov

Note: Depending on the grant or program category and the project start date, not all opportunities detailed above may be offered.